Idaho Falls Trip

DAY THIRTY: Wow, we've been away from home for thirty days!  Friday was the last day of Max's soccer camp. It was a rainy morning, but it was sort of off and on. It rained hard enough for a spell that everyone had to go under a pavilion for  a while, but mostly they were on the field. Toward the end Coach Chris called his group around him and handed out "report cards."

Coach Chris and his group, including Max

The camp ended very suddenly when just before noon, the heavens opened and the rain came in buckets mixed with hail. You never saw a group disperse so fast! I felt sorry for the staff because I think some final words never got said.

Saturday we made a trip to Idaho Falls to pick up Jenny's new Subaru!  Paul stayed home to do some work spreading gravel and stone, so Jenny, Max, Ellen and I went over to Idaho Falls in our car and we went right to the Subaru agency. We watched Serena Williams lose to Alize Cornet on the TV there and Max played with some very nice toys they had, while Jenny did the paperwork for her car.

The new Subaru Forester

Then we headed for the Zoo at Tautphaus Park in Idaho Falls We had been there before with Max - June, 2011. It's a very nice little zoo, arranged by regions of the world.

Max looks over the map of the zoo

 Max wanted to see the flamingos first.

Pink flamingos

We saw a lot of beautiful creatures, including a very colorful parrot (or was it a macaw?) and a tiger.

After the zoo, Jenny and Max did some shopping and Ellen and I looked around Idaho Falls a little bit - including the amazing Mormon Temple there:

Mormon Temple

Saturday evening we watched the Brazil/Chile World Cup game - which ended in penalty shots, which is never the way you want a game to end.

Sunday has dawned bright and clear. We're having a leisurely morning.

More on WW I and my family

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: Today is cool and rainy, but Ellen has taken Max to soccer camp. His attitude toward the camp improved immensely when he learned that he could take Gatorade. All the other kids had Gatorade, while he just had water. We just got on to that yesterday. His parents figured that a couple of days of Gatorade probably wouldn't kill him. So even though it was raining, he went off to camp with his green bottle very excited.

I would be watching the U.S./Germany World Cup game, which is going on right now, but Paul has the system set to record it and the TV tells me that if I try to watch it live, I'll cancel the recording. So I'm not touching it!  But I'm following a live blog. It 0-1 Germany at the moment, and US hopes of going into the next round are fading. But .. thanks to Portugal's defeat of Ghana 2-1, and the somewhat Byzantine scoring system of the World Cup, US will advance despite the loss to Germany.

To go back to WW I -  my mother's older brother, Julius Winter, was born March 7, 1894. He was sixteen when the family emigrated to the U.S., and was 23 when the U.S. entered the war. President Wilson initiated a selective service system, and  the first registration was June 15, 1917, for all men between the ages of 21 and 31. Julius must have had to register for the draft at that time. But things were not all well for young German-Americans.

My uncle, Julius Winter

"President Woodrow Wilson issued two sets of regulations on April 6, 1917, and November 16, 1917, imposing restrictions on German-born male residents of the United States over the age of 14. Some 250,000 people in that category were required to register at their local post office, to carry their registration card at all times, and to report any change of address or employment.  Some 6,300 such aliens were arrested. Thousands were interrogated and investigated. A total of 2,048 were incarcerated for the remainder of the war in two camps, Fort Douglas, Utah, for those west of the Mississippi and Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, for those east of the Mississippi."

Julius was not incarcerated, nor, to my knowledge, did he serve in the U.S. army. I believe he, like his father, was working for the Timken Rollar-Bearing Axle Co. in Canton, and his work may have been regarded as essential to the war effort. But he must have been affected by these regulations. What were his feelings? Was he "pro-German?" Or, like my mother, was he determined to put everything German behind him and become fully an American? There is no one living any more whom I can ask. 

However, we have in our family archive a fascinating glimpse on the war from a friend of Julius' living in Kaiserslautern, Germany, where the Winter family lived before coming to the U.S. This is a letter from Friedrich Schwarz, written on January 18, 1920 - just a year and two months after the armistice on Nov. 11, 1918.  Friedrich was writing in reply to a letter he had gotten from Julius, written the previous October. That tells us that Julius had not cut all his ties to Germany. Friedrich's father, Karl Schwarz, was a businessman, selling electric coffee roasters, and Friedrich writes on his father's letterhead:

Letter from Friedrich Schwarz to Julius Winter, Jan. 16, 1920

A translation reads:

-->

January 18, 1920

Dear Julius,

We received your letter on October 9, 1919.My father gave it to me to take care of because he has no time to write. We were very surprised to hear from you and hope to hear from you more often. We are all well. Peter had to join the military in August 1914. First he was with the Landsturm battalion, Kaiserslautern,[1]  with which he was sent to the Vosges (in Alsace-Lorraine). Then in 1915 he was sent to Serbia and the Roumania where he was to the end of the war. He came home December 15, 1918. Here we feel the war, especially regarding food, and the airplane attacks gave us much trouble. Shortly before the peace was declared, a bomb fell so near us that all the windows in our house on Mannheimer Strasse were broken. The groceries here are very expensive and will go up more. Here everything is "totally  crazy"- ("full of  schwindel" - vertigo). Nothing but strikes, rising grocery prices and bank crises. Here it is quiet at present but in Berlin there are troubles again. One doesn't know what will develop.

I am for a year now in the Schörken plant here, in the office as an apprentice. You may remember where they are. So far here all is as it was, except that the streetcar is working.

Now I shall close with the hope that you and your family are well.

                                                Friendly greetings,

                                                            Your

                                                              Friedrich (Schwarz)

---

[1] This would be like the local militia for the city of Kaiserslautern

This is fascinating because first of all, it reveals a friendly relationship with no trace of bitterness between Friedrich and Julius - friendship obviously has trumped any possible resentment on Friedrich's part that by going to the U.S., Julius had "gone over to the other side." But mostly, it gives a glimpse of the post-war situation in Germany, which was obviously very difficult and uncertain, but probably not as bad in Kaiserslautern as it was in some other cities, though I do not know exactly how badly Kaiserslautern was damaged by WW I. I know more about WW II, because my father actually went to Kaiserslautern in 1944 after it was occupied by the Allies, and he took pictures of the Stiftskirche, (the Collegiate Church) where my mother had been baptized as an infant, and which had been damaged by Allied bombs; he also visited her home at 36 Steinstrasse, met the Assel family who lived downstairs there when she was born, and was warmly greeted by them. 60% of Kaiserslautern was destroyed by Allied bombs during WW II, so it is amazing that mother's birthplace was still intact. However, when I went to Kaiserslautern in 1984, her home was gone. It had been torn down and replaced with condos just the previous year! Economic growth proved more deadly than Allied bombing.

 

36 Steinstrasse, Kaiserslautern. My mother was born upstairs in this building.

Dad's photo of the Stiftskirche in Kaiserslautern, 1944

Stiftskirche today

My father, Barney Crockett, was born May 14, 1896. Thus he turned 18 just a month before the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, and was 21 when the U.S. entered the war. He too had to register for the draft:

My father's WW I draft registration card

When he registered, my father had not yet met my mother, so he didn't know when he registered that he would someday be married to a German woman. I think he would have thought that to be highly unlikely at the time! I have a vague sense that my father enlisted in the army for a very brief time before the war ended, but I have no record of that, and I may be wrong. What I wonder is whether his experience of WW I played any role whatsoever in his decision to enlist at the age of 46 as a chaplain in WW II.

World War I and our family

DAY TWENTY-SIX: The First World War had its impact on my family, though I wish I knew more than I do about that. But I know some things. My mother was born in Germany, and her family emigrated to the U.S. in 1910, arriving at Ellis Island on Sept. 26th. They settled in Canton, OH. Mother was 9 years old. Thus when the war began, she was 13, and when the U.S. entered the war (April 6, 1917), she was 16. She rarely talked about those years, but she did tell one story about a troop train coming through Canton carrying new recruits for the army to NYC where they would embark for Europe. This was probably in 1918 when she was 17. She was doing volunteer work - maybe for the Red Cross, or maybe through her church -  and she went on to the train to serve the men coffee and doughnuts, or something like that. She had been in this country seven years or so, and probably had a German accent. When she spoke to one of the men, her accent was recognized and someone called out "Get that Hun!!"  I don't know exactly what happened next, but I just remember that it was a traumatic experience for her that led her to resolve that she would put all things German behind her. Thus, e.g.,  she never spoke German in our home. My only memory of her speaking German was on Christmas Eve, when she sang Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht.

Mother's father, August Winter, was born near Gottingen, Germany, July 6, 1865. He served in the German army, entering in 1883 when he was 18 years old. I have his military pass book - he seems to have served until at least 1891 - so at least eight years - maybe longer.  He was a musician in the German army - a trumpeter. Family lore is that he played before Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and that the Princess Olga Nicolaevna, the Tsar's eldest daughter was present. And that is how my mother came to be named Olga. My grandfather also played before the young Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (she became Queen at the age of 10), and gave her name to my mother also. We always thought she was Olga Wilhelmina, but when I went to Kaiserslautern, Germany in 1984, and got her birth certificate, it read "Wilhelmina Olga.")

The young Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Olga Nicolaevna Romanova - my mother was given the names of both these royal women

However, part of my grandfather's German military career was undistinguished, to say the least - he spent it in prison. E.g., he spent 3 months in a prison in Cologne, due to "gross demeanor." So Grandpa Winter may not have had a positive attitude toward the German military. We know he came to the U.S. before his family did - he was here for five years, scouting out employment opportunities before bringing his family over - and when he returned, he was drinking in a pub in Kaiserslautern, Germany (where he and his family lived and where my mother was born), and said something insulting about the Kaiser  (he probably had forgotten for the moment that he wasn't in the U.S.)  and he was overheard, and reported, and he and the family had to leave the country rather more hastily than intended. That's the story handed down, anyway.  August worked at the Timken Ball Bearing Company in Canton, but he was also a member of the "Thayer Military Band," which was active during WW I as a patriotic band. After WW I, it became known as the "135th Field Artillery Band" and it played at special U.S. military occasions. All of this suggests that Grandpa Winter might have assimilated to the U.S. fairly quickly and not have been an avid supporter of Germany during WW I as many German-Americans were. But it would be very interesting to know the true and full story.

I have some rare artifacts of my grandfather's service in the German army. 

A commemorative poster featuring my Grandfather Winter - "Trumpeter Winter"

Detail of above - a photo of my grandfather has been inserted into a generic poster

A photograph of unknown place and date, presumably of my grandfather's German military band leading the regiment

A detail of the above photo - possibly my grandfather in the center

Here is a photo of August Winter and his wife, Juliana, and their youngest son, Clarence, taken on their front porch in Canton, OH, probably right after WW I: 

My grandmother and grandfather Winter,  and my uncle Clarence, c.  1920

More on this later . . .

Another nice day

DAY TWENTY-SIX:  We took Max to Soccer Camp again today. I stayed and watched for a while. Today was "Wacky Wednesday" at the soccer camp so the coaches were dressed outrageously, as well as some kids, and there was a lot of clowning around. Then I left Ellen there while I went to one of my favorite stores in Thayne, The Paper Shop. There I was able to make a print of the photo of Max playing soccer, to frame for Paul and Jenny because they both liked it a lot. Then after watching the soccer again for a while, I checked out the Thayne Public Library, which is located in the school building next to the field where British Soccer was taking place.  We had lunch at Tootsies, a pizza place in Thayne - which was very busy.  The pizza was good! Then we came home.

Wacky Wednesday at British Soccer!

The rest of the day, we've hung out at home, I've been reading. Ellen fixed a nice supper (I grilled the meat and cleaned up the kitchen). We just had our daily evening walk - a 2-mile+ loop - which gives us this lovely scene:

Looking south on our evening walk

Tomorrow is the BIG GAME - U.S./Portugal - in the World Cup. It starts at 10am, so we'll have to figure out how to see it and also get Max to soccer.

Upcoming 100th anniversary

DAY TWENTY-FIVE: Today has been quiet. Max didn't feel like going to soccer camp - he ended up sleeping much of the afternoon. I've been nursing an infected finger - a hangnail gone bad - so I've been soaking my finger and lying low. You have to have a day like this now and then.

I've been reading Martin Gilbert's The First World War; A Complete History. What a sobering history! I have had only a superficial knowledge of WW I, so reading this book will move my understanding up a notch or two anyway. This reading was prompted by several things. In the past few months, I have read Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Bully Pulpit; Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism and A Scott Berg's Wilson, both of which deal, in part,  with the WW I era, and then most recently, Walter Johnson's William Allen White's America, which also spans WW I. Reading those books, I realized how little I knew about the war itself.

But most of all, I am aware that this coming Saturday, June 28th, will be the 100th anniversary of the event that sparked WW I: the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, by a Serbian teenager, Gavrilo Princip, in the city of Sarajevo. Undoubtedly, in the coming weeks, months, and perhaps, years, we will be confronted with various commemorations, documentaries, books, memorial events, etc., growing out of the 100th anniversary of WW I. It seems to be a widely-held view that WW I profoundly shaped the modern world, and perhaps we will gain some insight into just what that means, and, to be way optimistic, we might even find the clue to lead us into a better world.

If nothing else, WW I should enhance our appreciation for irony. Gavrilo Princip was part of an organization called Young Bosnia, which in turn was connected to a larger group called The Black Hand  which advocated the formation of a Greater Serbia, a separate and independent Serbian state, free from the oppression of the Austrian Empire. . To Princip, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne occupied by his uncle, 83-year-old Franz Joseph, appeared to be the enemy. What Princip didn't know was that Franz Ferdinand did not share his uncle's devotion to the bi-partite empire of Austria- Hungary. He envisioned a Tri-Partite Kingdom of Austrians, Hungarians and Slavs, each with their autonomy. If he had lived to become emperor, he might have helped bring about young Princip's hopes and dreams. That he was willing to defy his uncle had already been made clear when he married Sophie, who was not of the proper royal line. Ferdinand had to accept a morganatic marriage - i.e., the stipulation that neither his wife, nor his children by her, could ever inherit the throne. So he had some ideas of his own.

Gavrilo Princip

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg

A second irony growing out of June 28, 1914, is that after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Austrian government presented the Serbian government in Belgrade with an ultimatum intended to humiliate it (even though there was no evidence that the Serbian government, per se had had anything to do with the assassination), and which it was felt the Serbs would never accept. But in essence, they did - certainly enough to provide room for negotiation and a diplomatic settlement of the affair. But by the time they got their reply back to Vienna,  it was too late to stop the momentum which had built up in favor of war. Maybe those who today reach quickly for a military solution to problems in the Middle East (most of which have grown out of the aftermath of WW I) need to be reminded of that.

Many activities

DAY TWENTY-FOUR: I have some catching up to do, since I have not entered a post since last Wednesday and now it's Monday!

Today, Max started soccer camp. Yesterday was Alpine Mountain Days, and also the U.S. vs. Portugal World Cup soccer game. Saturday was a trip to Idaho Falls. Friday was a trip up into Grand Teton National Park. Thursday, Max stayed home from Camp Jackson - he just didn't feel like going - so we did things around here, like going to the Library for a craft workshop and playing at a stream near the house.  The weather was great, for the most part. It typically got very cool at night - it the 30's, then warmed up into the high 60's or 70's during the day. Perfect weather.

So,  Thursday was sort of a rest day. Max went to the Alpine Library for a craft workshop and made a catapult out of tongue depressors, rubber bands and a plastic spoon. It very effectively lobbed pieces of marshmallow:

Marshmallow catapult

We also went to a stream that is just a bit up from the house. It is a great place to wade in the water. It is also close to an osprey nest and there are other waterfowl in the distance, like pellicans - a great place to use binoculars. Max got a pair of binoculars from his grandpa and grandma Elmore for his birthday.

Max wading - with a collection of feathers in his hand

Bird-watching

Friday was Max's last day at Camp Jackson. Ellen and I had our usual latte and baked goods - this time I had a delicious Morning Glory Muffin - and then we headed up to Grand Teton Park. Our goal was Two Ocean Lake but we took the wrong road for that and had to give it up. But we had a lovely time at Christian Pond, which is a really great place to watch a wonderful variety of waterfowl - coots, ruddy ducks, cinnamon teals, etc.  There are lots of little islands in the pond made up of tufts of grass where the birds can hide and nest. But many of them were in the water, diving for food. Occasionally there would be a great flapping of wings as one or two took off. I don't have a telephoto lens with me (the only camera I own with a telephoto leans is a film camera, which is pretty much obsolete now), so I can't get closeups of the birds anymore, but here is a picture of the pond:

Christian Pond in Grand Teton N.P.

On the short hike from the road to the pond, Ellen counted 18 varieties of wildflowers.

Buckwheat, one of the many wildflowers we have seen

And on the trail we ran into a family - father, mother and five kids -  and quite quickly learned that the mother's uncle is Roger Turner, who lives just down the road from us in Dummerston. Small world!

And, of course, the Tetons were beautiful, as always.

Part of the Grand Teton range

Saturday was a trip to Idaho Falls for Paul, Ellen, Max and myself. Jenny stayed home to get some things done around the house. Idaho Falls is about a 1 1/2 hour trip away - short by Western standards. Paul had shopping to do, but we made a stop at  iJump - a place where kids and adults can use a trampoline or jump into pits of foam cubes. It's a pretty fun place, and Max loved it. Paul got out there with him and did some jumping too. But for adults, unless you are used to it, you can really feel it in your knees the next day.

Max jumps while Paul watches

You can literally disappear into the foam cube pit.  Fortunately, you can crawl out again!

We had a good, reasonable, lunch at Chuck-O-Rama, I got some whey powder at GNC, and we got back to Alpine in time to watch an exciting soccer game between Germany and Ghana that ended in a 2-2- draw - an upset for sure, since Germany is highly ranked.

On the way out of Idaho Falls, Paul pointed out a big billboard that sort of illustrates the mentality of this part of the world - at least one segment of it. The billboard comes just before a huge wind farm on the Idaho plains east of Idaho Falls, and it is "agin" wind power. 

An Anti-wind power billboard in Idaho Falls, ID

Here's a sample paragraph from the website of the organization sponsoring the billboard:

"It was only two years ago that anyone who publicly opposed wind turbines was considered a social pariah and practically ostracised from society as if they were modern-day lepers. Things have changed. Not a day goes by without a new story slamming wind energy or highlighting increasing wind farm opposition .  . . . Just as it was once popular to support wind energy, it has now almost...almost...become fashionable to oppose wind turbines."

Wind power is not without its issues. A recent article in the local Jackson Hole News reported that The American Bird Conservancy is suing the federal government over a recent ruling that allows wind turbine companies to kill eagles for 30 years without fear of prosecution. Many eagles have been killed by wind turbines and one study predicts that by 2030, a million and a half birds, of all species, will be killed by wind turbines annually. This is hard for someone like myself, who favors wind power, to deal with. Every form of energy has its downside, but that is a huge one.

Sunday we had a quiet morning and in the evening, Ellen and got in a nice walk on the loop near the house. But during the day, we took in Mountain Days - an annual event in Alpine, and then in the later afternoon, watched the exciting U.S. - Portugal soccer game. Paul played soccer in his teen years, and is an avid fan. At one time he even seriously considered going to Brazil for the World Cup - but that was before he started working for OSM, which makes a trip like that almost impossible now - hard to get away. Portugal is ranked fourth in the world (the U.S. is about fifteenth), but the U.S. played well and was winning 2-1 until just 30 seconds before the end of the game, when Portugal's star player, Rinaldo, scored. If the U.S. had won, they would have automatically advanced to the next round no matter what the outcome of a game against Germany next Thursday. Now, with a draw against Portugal, they can still advance with a win or draw against Germany, but that is a tall order. Germany is good. But it is within reach. This is the best the U.S. team has done for quite a while.

Part of Mountain Days are vendors who sell unusual products like a wooden cross-bow which caught Max's fancy. It shoots rubber-tipped arrows - fairly safe if responsibly handled. He has played with it a lot outside.

Lethal weapon??

While we watched the soccer game, Max put together another LEGO set - a "Cole's Earth Driller" machine in the Ninjago Series. He put this together entirely on his own, without any adult help. That takes some real concentration!

LEGO Earth Driller

Monday. This morning, Max started British Soccer Camp, which is held at Thayne every morning this week. This program exists all over the U.S. - also called Challenger  Sports - and has over 110,000 kids enrolled this summer. He'll get 3 hours of soccer instruction and practice each morning. We got to watch the opening introductions. Max came home happy - he'd had a great time!

The six young British soccer coaches introduce themselves to the kids.

Max, the soccer-player!

On our lovely evening loop walk, Ellen and I caught this sunset:

Sunset over Palisades Reservoir

Snow Day!

DAY NINETEEN: Today, Wednesday, we once again took Max to Camp Jackson. It was a cold and wet day, not a day for hiking at all, so after dropping Max off we walked to the Great Harvest Bakery for a coffee and muffin for me, and a latte and scone for Ellen. That is always a very pleasant thing to do. Then we drove to Paul's worksite, which is in Teton Village, a 15- 20 minute drive from Jackson. We went there back in March (go to the blog for March 28, 2014 "Paul's Current work site") and were interested to see the progress. The most visible progress was the addition of some siding on the outside - weathered barn board. The theme for the whole house is sort of "grey." It will be very handsome. Inside, a lot had been done, but not much visible to the casual eye - things like wiring, plumbing, windows, insulation. It continues to be a very challenging and often frustrating job. Today, it was lack of detailed plans from the architect for the showers that was holding things up. Sub-contractors come, can't do what they are supposed to do, go on to another job, and then it's hard to get them back, and that screws up the whole schedule. Or another thing is that the interior stairs are metal and being fabricated in Idaho. The architect's plans say the metal is supposed to be "blackened" but no one is able to tell Paul what that means. With what? How? What shade of black? Also, the contractor building the stairs has never actually come on site to measure the space. He's going on measurements given him by Paul. Will the stairs actually fit? But this is the daily bread of a site manager. It's exhausting.

The OSM site poster for Paul's current job

Paul's office in a trailer

Exterior barn board siding

Entry - the "blackened" stairs will go where the ladder is.

We left Paul to his work and decided to go to Victor, ID to the Emporium so Ellen could get one of their world-famous Huckleberry Shakes. You have to go over Teton Pass to get to Victor, and sure enough, the temp dropped to 29 degrees and we hit a heavy snow squall!  June in Wyoming! The road was fine, but it was wild.

Snow squall

Snowy sticky geranium

The Emporium in Victor, ID

From Victor we took the road down to Swan Valley and came back to Alpine on Route 26.  Partly a new road for me - and despite what became a fairly steady rain, it was beautiful.

WIlliam Allen White and Walter Johnson

DAY SEVENTEEN: Today I have been reading William Allen White's America, a biography of the early 20th century, Republican editor of the Topeka, KS Gazette who became a national figure through his feisty editorials, his numerous articles in all major magazines of the day, his published stories about life in small-town Kansas, and his friendship with Theodore Roosevelt. I would never have thought to read a biography of W. A. White if I hadn't become involved with writing about Ellen's father, Frederick B. Tolles, and his unfinished MS of a history of Colonial America, and that is because the editor of the series Tolles was writing for, to have been published by Alfred A. Knopf, was University of Chicago historian, Walter Johnson. Johnson wrote William Allen White's America, and I have become interested in him as a person after reading extensively the correspondence between him as an editor, and Knopf as a publisher. And so I got one of his books through Inter-Library Loan, and I am enjoying reading it. One of the reasons I'm reading this book is that I want to find out first hand what kind of writer Walter Johnson was. And that's because when Walter Johnson - who was both editor of the series, and the author of what would be Vol. V in the series - submitted his own MS of Vol V.  to Alfred A. Knopf, Knopf was scathing in his criticism of Johnson's writing. But then, Knopf was scathing in his criticism of  the writing of several of the historians whom Johnson had recruited for this series (and for another series that was in the works at the same time). Knopf never got to read Frederick Tolles MS of Vol. I, so we don't know what his assessment of Tolles' writing would have been, but my guess is that he would have liked it.

Johnson himself was both an historian and a liberal political activist. He was an avid supporter of Adlai Stevenson in his 1952 bid for the presidency, and wrote How We Drafted Adlai Stevenson, a movement within the Democratic Convention of 1952, in which Johnson was a leader. He was also involved in the city-level politics of Chicago and ran for the City Council as a reformist. It is somewhat ironic that he wrote a biography of W. A. White because White was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. However, White became a strong supporter of Theo. Roosevelt's Progressive agenda within the Republican Party, an agenda which was passionately opposed to the power of money in politics. I have no doubt that if White were alive today, he would vehemently oppose the Tea Party - even though he might agree with some of its principles - with the same colorful invective with which he opposed the Kansas Populists of his own time, as demagogues and crazies. It is the paradox of White himself that in his earlier years he opposed Democrat William Jennings Bryan and the Populist effort to regulate the railroads and big business, whereas ten years later he supported Roosevelt's efforts to do the same thing. The difference, in his mind, was that the Populists - even though they might be right in some of their understanding of the problem - could not be trusted as persons holding office to do the sensible thing; whereas he felt that Roosevelt could be trusted. I'm sure he would feel the same about today's Republican Tea Party. White famously said that it would be better to commit the Republican Party to hell than to vote for it against the good of the people. Where is that voice today?

William Allen White

Walter Johnson, in 1953

 

In Jackson Hole

DAY EIGHTEEN:  Monday we took Max to a day camp called Camp Jackson, which is based at the Jackson Elementary School and Rec Center (although they make field trips to several other venues during the day). We dropped Max off at about 9:15am,  he got a Camp Jackson tee-shirt. WE hung about a bit while Max played in the LEGO room they had set up, and then said goodbye and had the rest of the day for ourselves before picking him up at 4:30pm. Max had no problem letting us go - he was into LEGO! By the way, Paul gave Max a haircut yesterday, so he looks a little different. He looks like his dad!

New haircut!

LEGO room

Camp Jackson Tee Shirt

We wanted to take a little hike up into the hills, and we did, but it was not the ideal day for hiking. It was showery all day long - rain and sun alternating most of the day. We started out going up the Cache Creek Trail - the trail head is right outside of the town of Jackson. The wildflowers were spectacular, small meadows carpeted with balsamroot, heartleaf arnica, lupine, little blue penstamon, blue flax, prairie smoke - a profusion of flowers. But it started to rain fairly steadily, and it was cold - in the low 50's. So we headed back to the car and into Jackson and went to the Bunnery for a latte and scone. We looked around a bit, went into the "Believe It Or Not Ripley Museum" where Ellen found some postcards (Ellen had lived in Jackson for several years about 15 years ago, but had never gone into that museum before), we checked out a bookstore and then got some soup at a new market and deli, and then went up the Curtis Canyon Road to a nice lookout spot where we ate the soup. Then, since little storms were still moving through, we kept driving up the Curtis Canyon Road, checked out a nice National Forest Campground, fantasized about camping there, continued on, stopped at a memorial plaque for nine service-men killed in a plane crash on August 17, 1996 on Sheep Mountain (also called The Sleeping Indian), and since the rain had stopped, climbed up a little hill and got some nice views, kept on driving (the road was getting rutty but we kept going), went past a large group of young people alongside the road who were shooting at clay pigeons (is that legal in a National Forest?), and kept going to the end and were rewarded by spectacular views of the Teton Range with wildflowers in the foreground. Everywhere we stopped there were wildflowers in profusion. Then we made the long trek back and were in plenty of time to pick up Max, who seemed to have had a good time at the camp, though the activities had been limited by the wet and cold weather. But the camp staff is resourceful. It was a nice day.

Rain is coming!

Wildflower meadow

A profusion of arnica

Balsamroot

Salsify - I love the structure of this flower

Sleeping Indian Mountain

What a sight!

Today, Tuesday,  Ellen has taken Max to Camp Jackson, and since it is still cold and wet (in the 40's), I've stayed home to blog, read, etc. Paul will pick up Max today, so Ellen can come home anytime she wants to.